Generally, a silver halide photographic light-sensitive material comprises an electrical insulating support and photographic component layers; therefore, it is liable to charge with electricity when rubbed with or peeled from the surface of the same or different kinds of material during a manufacturing process or while put in use. If a static charge accumulated before development is discharged and thereby a light-sensitive layer is exposed, so-called static marks such as dot spots or dendritic or plumous markings appear upon development of an affected photographic film. This seriously impairs the value of the photographic film. For example, a static mark that occurred on an X-ray film for medical or industrial uses is likely to lead to a very dangerous misjudgement. Since such an affection can be found only when the film is developed, it poses a difficult problem. The static mark has come to occur more frequently in the recent trends of a light-sensitive material toward a much higher sensitivity, coating speed, photographing speed and automatic processing speed. That is, contact-rubbing occurs frequently between a high-sensitive material and various rollers or machines, or between light-sensitive materials themselves, in the manufacturing processes such as coating, drying and packaging; moreover, in the steps of film loading, photographing, and automatic development processing.
There have been proposed a variety of methods to improve surface conductivity of the support and coating layer of a light-sensitive material, and the use of various hygroscopic materials, water soluble inorganic salts, and some surfactants and polymers has been attempted.
However, not a few conventional antistatic agents are liable to decrease in effect or adversely affect photographic characteristics depending on the kind of a support or a photographic composition. In some cases, the antistatic property is entirely lost in the course of development.
Taking notice of these conditions, attempts were made to enhance conductivity of a light-sensitive material for the purpose of imparting antistatic property as described in, for example, Japanese Patent Publication Open to Public Inspection (hereinafter referred to as Japanese Patent O.P.I. Publication) No. 84658/1980. This technique could impart some antistatic property, but it turned out to cause peeling of a wet emulsion layer from a support while a light-sensitive material is subjected to development, which may lead to a serious accident.
As speedup in conveying and processing a film has come to the main trend of the industry, stability of an emulsion layer during photographic processes is getting more and more important, and improvement in adhesion of a wet emulsion layer, not to mention dry adhesion, is strongly desired.